Kane Brown will be appearing on a new remix of pop star Camila Cabello’s current single “Never Be The Same” according to information coming down the music wires. Camila has warned on Twitter of big news this week, and Genius has the track being released Saturday, April 28th.

Off her album Camila, “Never Be The Same” has already been Certified Platinum, and currently sits at its peak position of #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. A remix with Kane Brown is likely to put the single into hyperdrive for a push it well into the Top 10. What has some observers from the country realm interested (or concerned) is if it will be the latest pop/country collaboration to be released to country radio, while fans and critics of pop are also beginning to become concerned if country collaborations are going to be the new norm for their favorite pop stars.

The issue with Florida Georgia Line collaborating with Bebe Rexha on the song “Meant To Be”—and its subsequent overwhelming and historic chart performance—was that it set a bad precedent in a copycat industry that could open the floodgates and fill the charts, playlists, and radio with cross-genre collaborations in the true ushering in of the monogenre. Similar concerns were levied over Maren Morris and her participation with Zedd on the song “The Middle,” which has already enjoyed its moment at #1 on the Top 40. Kane Brown doing a remix with Camila Cabello exacerbates those concerns across genre lines.

Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” has now been stuck at the #1 position on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for an incredible, record-shattering 5 months, or 21 weeks total. Just this week, her collaboration with Florida Georgia Line also hit #1 on country radio, though peaking on country radio likely means the run of “Meant To Be” on the country charts might soon be stalling out. And all of this is for a pop artist, and a pop song that wasn’t originally supposed to be released to country at all, aided and abetted by Billboard’s chart rules that allow pop spins and plays to count on country charts.

But that calculation works both ways. Country plays also count on pop charts, and this is at least part of the inspiration from the Camila Cabello camp to remix “Never Be The Same” with Kane Brown. Kane has also keenly benefited over his career from incredibly favorable playlist placement—as did Bebe Rexha and “Meant To Be.” Whether the “Never Be The Same” remix makes it to country radio, it will most certainly be populating on massive country playlists, boosting metadata by double dipping into two genres at once.

Also, the timing for releasing a remix of “Never Be The Same” with Kane Brown couldn’t be more perfect. It will light a fire under the song right as it’s reaching towards #1 on the Hot 100, Kane Brown’s current single “Heaven” is currently sitting #2 on Hot Country Songs, and #4 on country radio, meaning it’s ready to go #1 in the coming weeks to then enact the inevitable precipitous fall, which will then clear the decks for “Never Be The Same” to surge, and right as Bebe Rexha’s “Meant To Be” will be ready to take its final bow.

Pop stars collaborating with country artists is nothing new. But it used to be a special event. Now it’s becoming incredibly commonplace as producers and labels look to maximize all efforts into pushing a project to the top. And because today’s current songs are nothing more than a project on a laptop, the two artists don’t even have to meet. A vocal file is sent over and slotted into the original master.

Combining fan bases, and jobbing Billboard’s chart rules have greater implications for music. If no one genre can definite itself either by a sound or even the names of artists, it will result in significantly less choice in mainstream music markets.

Bravo, Fuzzy!!! I can almost forgive the artists if they would perform the collaboration live, which seems to happen if the collaborators tour together and/or perform the song at a awards show. I guess on a talk show, also. At least then we have some kind of satisfaction they did appear in the song together.

I think the charts need to go away. That will REALLY throw the masses for a loop. They won’t know WTF to listen to if somebody isn’t saying it was a hit on the Hot 100 or the country singles chart. But maybe people will start listening and thinking for themselves.

I think that as long as the rest of the performance was for real by a whole band in the studio together and the only “fake” part was adding in the vocals from an overseas artist, that can be an exception.

But to just overlay parts on top of each-other from musicians who probably have never played together and just mail recordings back and forth until you have enough pieces to make a song is hardly music.

Music is supposed to be people playing together and I’m worried that that’s going away.

I was a self-taught musician who played at jams with people and learned how to play with other people.

Half the people in Nashville can’t play with a real drummer in the room.

That’s what’s missing in music anymore, people don’t play music together they just record parts they probably are playing from memory without any creativity and slap them together with people they’ve never met

”But to just overlay parts on top of each-other from musicians who probably have never played together and just mail recordings back and forth until you have enough pieces to make a song is hardly music.”

I hear ya F2S …I really do
Two words– Sgt. Pepper’s . What you mention above is absolute kid’s stuff compared to how The Beatles and George Martin built THAT record and ….well ….I think most of the planet calls it music and has done so for over 50 years.
But yeah ….I hear ya . Listen to the Stones or Del McCoury’s boys play live …..UNDENIABLE energy and connection .

Albert and Fuzzy, I used to read how a band would record an album in different studios. Guitar tracking at one studio, vocals in another one, bass and drums somewhere else. I was always under the impression the band would write and record together….as a band. Now, it sounds like they’re only together when they rehearse their tour setlist.

waitafugginminutehere…. we now saying that even a vocal overdub qualifies a recording as unauthentic? Using this rule we dump in the toilet most pop / rock / country records made since the mid 60’s or even earlier. Does the typical music fan really give a shit if their favorite artist tracks on a Studer A800, Pro Tools or a Pioneer cassette -or- do they just like the music that speaks to them and disregard the stuff that doesn’t?

Sending a tape somewhere to have someone overdub on it has been around for a very long time, way before digital. Over produced records have been around a long time as well. Digital just makes the process faster & easier. Digital ain’t the evil dark side & Analog ain’t the silver bullet. These machines are merely tools that in the hands of real artists can create great works or in the hands of a fool create a bucket of shit. A great song, decently recorded, played well and sung with conviction is what I’m looking for. I call that music.

Trigger, maybe you can start sub-blog titled “Saving Country Recording Techniques”, which is where I suggest some of these discussions belong.

I’m a self taught musician who learned the ropes by sitting in with other musicians with no tricks gimmicks or bullshit

and it sounds better than the shit on the radio because the people no how to do the stuff right.

If the people getting paid to make music can’t do it without a hundred computers fixing pitch and letting them do it over a hundred times overlaying tracks then they don’t deserve to make money playing music.

either do it right the proper way or get the hell out.

Welders gotta know how to weld

truck drivers gotta know how to drive a truck

musicians should know how to make music without the aid of gimmicks gadgets and hoopla

I agree a complete live in studio band performance is ideal. I mainly play bluegrass now, and we do it the way I grew watching my grandfathers band do it. Everyone into one mic, moving in and out from the mic and controlling the dynamics of your instrument and voice. We do that live and in the studio. The next best way is do the core track multitrack and do some overdubs. I don’t have a problem with humans overdubbing parts over other humans never being in the same room or even same country. The real problem is quantization of drums, tuning vocals, looping riff etc.. The biggest problem of all is programed shit all done from a computer and never touching an instrument.

Out of curiosity, I went and listened to the song — not the remix (which I guess isn’t out yet) but the original. I suppose it’s not bad by pop standards, which I’m not able to judge, but I really can’t imagine how this could be remixed with Kane Brown and then played on country radio. I know I shouldn’t be surprised at this point.

With the Bebe/FGL song, I wasn’t surprised because it sounded like almost every FGL song or at least not very far outside of their wheelhouse. That’s no excuse, of course, but this Camila/Kane collaboration could mark a new low, even more significant, for the “country” format. That’s saying something. After all, CMT has long been playing the Bebe/FGL song on heavy rotation in the mornings (when they actually play music videos), as well as Carrie Underwood’s sports anthem, whatever it’s called, that was also supposedly not meant for the country format.

I think it’s been about twenty years since CMT became a part of Viacom (MTV, VH1, BET) after years with Gaylord/Opryland. I was in high school at the time. CMT has no standards or principles of any sort related to country music. But they still have a fair share of influence in the format. It seems, if I remember correctly, that CMT was playing the Bebe/FGL video as soon as it was released and long before country radio finally picked it up. Thus, my impression was that CMT played a role in making the song a part of the country format, even though it was not initially intended (we are told) to have been in the country format.

The only reason I know what videos CMT plays is because I will change the channel while eating breakfast, from the news to CMT, during commercial breaks. So, as I’m flipping back and forth I can witness the travesty of mainstream “country” music. I guess I’m a glutton for punishment.

Another day, another pop tart announces a collaboration with a pop country artist to get herself onto country radio. What’s a little different is that she’s doing it when she isn’t a has-been at pop radio just yet. Tori Kelly, Julia Michaels and Bebe Rexha were C-list pop stars at best, but Camila Cabello is coming off a #1 pop smash with “Havana.”

While I was not a fan of “Havana” and even less a fan of the material Cabello recorded as a member of Fifth Harmony, “Never Be the Same” makes “Havana” sound like “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Cabello may have some talent but you wouldn’t know it from listening to “Never Be the Same” – the autotune on that “song” is so thick you could cut it with a knife. With or without a Kane Brown remix, it makes even “Meant to Be” sound good.

Next up: Thomas Rhett with Rae Sremmurd, or Walker Hayes with Cardi B.

This really boils down to the mainstream masses (mainly the under 30 set) want music for free. Ever since Napster showed you didn’t have to pay for music and YouTube showed they didn’t really give hoot ‘n’ holler about copyright. The young folks by in large won’t pay for music so the music companies don’t put the money to wards developing great new talent and try to maximize their profit with what mediocre talents they have nailing as many markets as they can in one song. I don’t see how this will ever change because once out of Plato’s record store cave into the land of free streaming music you can never go back.

So I think the dialogue needs to shift away from chart stats to what the American demographics are actually listening to and buying as we have seen Blackberry Smoke and John Prine are big hits without hits but with so much focus on singles charts nobody seems to discuss this outside niche markets. And to be clear this is true across all genres not just country, every major genre in the mainstream is diluted swill.

”And to be clear this is true across all genres not just country, every major genre in the mainstream is diluted swill.”

…….man ain’t that the sad truth …..there is so very , very little interesting MUSIC in the mainstream,
…….all so derivative and lacking any ‘organic’ connection .flavour-of-the-week pretty boys and pretty girls singing to machine-generated pap. no soul …no sincerity…no artistic style or vision .

Yup. But also much like country music has folks like Randy Rogers and Sunny Sweeney and others on the outside doing cool stuff music row ignores becaue it won’t promote what it can’t control. Rock music producers for example also blatantly ignore talents like Ty Seagall and Beth Hart. It left to people to it seem by happenstance or random word of mouth find these people. Happenstance is how I found this site.

I have said for some time you could take this sites very format and do Saving Rock Music, Saving Hip-hop Music, Saving Jazz Music, Saving Heavy Metal and have just as much content as you have here.

It is a systemic problem with mainstream music period. And TBF I thought the late 90s was stale but it is nothing compared to the last ten years. And just because as people have argued it is no different than say the cookie cuter material of the 50s 60s Brill Building stuff that was popular does mean that is a model we should be following. But back then you had AT MOST 3 people getting songwriting credit now the average seems to 5 usually more. And the results are not impressive.

All of that being true, I don’t think is going to be like a new Bro Country Era. I think the Sam Hunts, the FGLs, Kane Browns, Maren Morris, probably Thomas Rhett, Kelsea, maybe Old Dominion idk. I think that this going to be a small island of artists existing in this mainstream space. The most mainstream its ever been of course. But I don’t think Country artists all over the game are going to think they can get their hands in this in that way that a lot of middle tier artists took advantage of the Bro Country trend and put together strings of #1 singles. The Blake Sheltons, Luke Bryans, and Jason Aldeans kind of followed the “popular kids” as far as it would take them before they had to turn back, and those middle tier artists just don’t have the fan base to be a part of something like this on a serious level. Even Cole Swindell who is probably the most notable of that group looks like he is really going to struggle. A lot of those guys who are in the middle of the country and pop country world, with maybe a few exceptions who will still be able to do well on radio, are going to be screwed.

We must challenge the mainstream because that is what is shading out the real music, especially issues such as the ones broached in this article. Just in the last few days I’ve posted two features on Joshua Hedley, as well as features on Charley Crockett, Jerry Jeff Walker, John Prine, William Elliot Whitmore, and multiple independent country music events. The focus is always on “real music.” But if we don’t challenge the mainstream and the manipulations going on there, no one will.

….mainstream , like it or not , will be the stuff that influences young writers and singers first . crap goes in , crap comes out . we need to point that out to youth …..we need to be ‘keepers of the flame ‘ and ensure they always know there are far better alternatives not offered , generally , by mainstream .

…..in reviewing , assessing , and calling out the worst when it needs to be called out , you contribute to a knowledge and inspiration base young people NEED to be aware of so as not to think ‘mainstream’ success is music’s holy grail . in fact it may work against an artists creativity , instincts and vision in terms of growth and authenticity .

Obviously this will be a dumpster fire, but it does present an interesting shift in genre dynamics. For the past ten years or so, the relationship between country music and hip-hop/rap/pop has been embarrassingly one-sided; FGL sings about a playlist with “a little Hank, little Drake,” but is Drake name-dropping FGL? Of course not. Country singers employ the services of past-generation rap stars such as Nelly, T.I., and Ludacris, but are modern rappers paying 2000’s country singers such as Billy Currington and Toby Keith to sing the hooks on their songs? Nope. I suppose what we can take from this is that a “country” singer (yes, I use that term VERY lightly) is being endorsed by a pop singer on a mainstream hit. And while I have several issues with Kane Brown (he seems to have a ridiculously fragile ego), at least he has a good voice. I won’t be surprised if he drops the “southern accent” for this though.

How people can turn on “Country Radio” and hear Bebe Rexha, Sam Hunt, FGL, etc. and not think “what the F is this” is upsetting. Can anyone explain why country radio spins count on pop charts, or why a spin on a pop station counts on the Hot Country chart, who came up with this dumbshit idea?

“Hot Country Songs” is not a country radio chart. It is a multi-metric chart designed to measure the biggest overall country song. Holding all else equal, a country song receiving airplay at pop radio is bigger than a song that is only receiving airplay at country radio.